Feature driven backend switching

ABSTRACT

A method and system for switching backend devices in a virtual machine system based on features of the backend devices. In one embodiment, a computer system includes at least a first device and a second device that function as a backend device. The first device is currently used by a guest of the computer system as the backend device. A hypervisor of the computer system receives an indication from the guest to use a feature of the backend device. The hypervisor determines whether the use of the feature of the backend device triggers a switching condition. In response to a determination that the switching condition is triggered, the guest is switched to use the second device as the backend device. The switching operation can be transparent to the guest.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/012,042, filed on Jan. 24, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,522,238, issuedon Aug. 27, 2013, the entirety of which is incorporated herein byreference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a computer system, andmore specifically, to device management in a virtual machine system.

BACKGROUND

Virtualization allows multiplexing of an underlying host machine betweendifferent virtual machines. The host computer allocates a certain amountof its resources to each of the virtual machines. Each virtual machineis then able to use the allocated resources to execute applications,including operating systems (referred to as guest operating systems).The software layer providing the virtualization is commonly referred toas a hypervisor and is also known as a virtual machine monitor (VMM), akernel-based hypervisor, or a host operating system. The hypervisoremulates the underlying hardware of the host computer, making the use ofthe virtual machine transparent to the guest operating system and theuser of the computer.

A virtual machine system generally includes multiple backend devices. Abackend device is a communication end point with which guest software ona virtual machine interacts. Examples of a backend device includenetwork interface cards (NICs), disks, graphics cards, sound cards,video cards, modems, bridges, etc.

A virtual machine system can include more than one of the same kinds ofa backend device. For example, a virtual machine system can includemultiple NIC cards that have different features (e.g., different powerconsumption, speed, costs, number of concurrent users allowed). One ofthe NIC cards allows the guest to change its media access control (MAC)address and the others do not. During operation, the guest may need tochange its MAC address but the NIC card it is currently using does notallow MAC address change. One current approach is to rely on a systemadministrator to command the hypervisor to initiate backend deviceswitching for the guest. For example, a system administrator can hotplugremove a currently-installed backend device and hotplug add a newbackend device. However, relying on a system administrator to detect theguest's needs and to issue appropriate commands can be cumbersome andinefficient. Further, hotplug operations are not transparent to theguest.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example, and not by wayof limitation, and can be more fully understood with reference to thefollowing detailed description when considered in connection with thefigures in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a virtual machine system that hosts aguest.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a hypervisor and a guest in a virtualmachine system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating examples of a configuration datastructure.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method for featuredriven backend switching.

FIG. 5 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine in theexemplary form of a computer system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Described herein is a method and system that uses a feature drivenmechanism for switching backend devices in a virtual machine system. Inone embodiment, a computer system includes at least a first device and asecond device that function as a backend device. The first device iscurrently used by a guest of the computer system as the backend device.A hypervisor of the computer system receives an indication from theguest to use a feature of the backend device. The hypervisor determineswhether the use of the feature of the backend device triggers aswitching condition. In response to a determination that the switchingcondition is triggered, the guest is switched to use the second deviceas the backend device. The switching operation can be transparent to theguest.

Throughout the following description, the term “backend device” is usedto refer to a hardware device or a software device. Such devices includebackend interface cards (NICs), disks, graphics cards, sound cards,video cards, modems, bridges, etc. It is understood that other networkdevices may be included. The term “guest” refers to the software thatruns or can run on the hypervisor that is installed on a disk, loadedinto memory, or currently running. A guest may include one or more ofthe following: a firmware copy in memory, an operating system,additional installed software, a browser, applications running on thebrowser, etc. The term “virtual machine” (VM) refers to part of ahypervisor that is visible to the guest. A virtual machine may includeone or more of the following: memory, virtual CPU, virtual devices(e.g., emulated NIC or disk), physical devices over which a guest isgiven partial or full control, firmware such as Basic Input/OutputSystem (BIOS), Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) and AdvancedConfiguration and Power Interface (ACPI) which is provided to the guest,etc.

In the following description, numerous details are set forth. It will beapparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present inventionmay be practiced without these specific details. In some instances,well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form,rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring the presentinvention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram that illustrates an embodiment of a computersystem 100 in which embodiments of the present invention may operate.The computer system 100 hosts a plurality of virtual machines (VM) 130.Each virtual machine 130 runs a guest (e.g., guest 140) that uses aguest operating system to manage its resources. The virtual machines 130may run the same or different guest operating systems, such as MicrosoftWindows®, Linux®, Solaris®, Mac® OS, etc. The computer system 100 may bea server, a workstation, a personal computer (PC), a mobile phone, apalm-sized computing device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), etc.

In one embodiment, the computer system 100 runs a hypervisor 125 tovirtualize access to the underlying host hardware, making the use of thevirtual machine 130 transparent to the guest 140 and the users of thecomputer system 100. In one embodiment, the hypervisor 125 may supportmultiple virtual machines 130. In one embodiment, the hypervisor 125 ispart of a host OS 120.

In one embodiment, the computer system 100 is accessible by remotesystems via a network 160. The network 160 may be a private network(e.g., a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), intranet,etc.) or a public network (e.g., the Internet).

The computer system 100 also includes hardware components such as one ormore physical central processing units (CPUs) 170, memory 190, and otherhardware components.

In one embodiment, the computer system 100 also includes one or morebackend devices communicatively coupled to the guest 140. The computersystem 100 may include more than one backend device of the same devicetype; e.g., the computer system 100 may include two or more NICs thatcan be used by multiple guests. During operation, each guest 140 may notsee all of the backend devices of the same device type in the computersystem 100. Rather, each guest 140 may see a subset (e.g., one, two, ora configurable number) of the backend devices of the same device type.In other words, only a subset of the backend devices of the same devicetype is exposed to the guest 140. For simplicity of the discussion, theguest 140 in the following description is exposed to one backend deviceof the same device type (e.g., one NIC, one sound card, etc.) at a time.It is understood that the guest in alternative embodiments may beexposed to multiple backend devices of the same device type at the sametime.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the hypervisor 125includes a device manager 128 to manage the backend devices 152 used bythe guest 140. When the guest 140 attempts to use a certain feature of abackend device 152, the hypervisor 125 will trap the attempt anddetermine whether the guest 140 should switch to a different device thatsupports the feature. The computer system 100 includes multiple backenddevices of the same device type with different features. For example,the computer system 100 may include two network devices with differentspeeds and/or different processing capabilities. When the guest 140attempts to use a certain capability of a network device not provided bythe network device currently accessible by the guest 140, the guest 140can be switched to a different network device that provides the requiredcapability.

In one embodiment, the decision to switch is based on whether the use ofthe feature triggers a pre-defined switching condition. The switchingcondition, in turn, is defined based on whether the current device usedby the guest 140 as the backend device supports the feature, whetheranother device that also functions as the backend device supports thefeature better than the current device, or other considerations. In someembodiments, the guest 140 may send a signal to the hypervisor 125indicating the intent to use the feature before performing an operationthat uses the feature (e.g., when the guest 140 uses a feature supportedby a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) device). In some otherembodiments, the guest 140 may directly attempt to perform an operationthat uses the feature.

To allow speedy switching operations, in one embodiment, the devices towhich the guest 140 can switch are open (that is, activated or madeaccessible) for access by the guest 140 before the switching operationtakes place. In alternative embodiments where the devices are notpre-open for guest access, the device that the guest 140 switches to canbe open when the switching takes place. In one embodiment, the computersystem 100 includes a management component 170 that controls theaccessibility of the backend devices 152. Before a switching operationoccurs, the management component 170 may open multiple devices of thesame device type that support the features that the guest 140 may needto use. Thus, during operations of the guest 140, the guest 140 canseamlessly switch among these open devices. In one embodiment, themanagement component 170 may be part of the computer system 100 or partof the hypervisor 125. In an alternative embodiment, the managementcomponent 170 may be separate from the computer system 100 butcommunicatively coupled to the computer system 100 (e.g., the managementcomponent 170 may reside in another computer system).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram that illustrates an example of the guest 140and the hypervisor 125. In one embodiment, the hypervisor 125 maintainsand updates a configuration data structure (e.g., a configuration table240) in memory 250 for each backend device in the computer system 100(FIG. 1). In one embodiment, the configuration table 240 for a backenddevice includes identifiers 210 for identifying the devices of the samedevice type that function as a backend device, features 220 for eachdevice, and one or more switching conditions 230 that specify whendevice switching should occur. The configuration table 340 may alsoinclude an indicator (e.g., a flag 235), indicating the device that iscurrently used by the guest 140 as a backend device. Using theconfiguration table 240, the device manager 128 is able to keep track ofthe features of each device in the computer system 100, the devices thatare currently used by the guest 140, and make decisions on whether totrigger a switch of the devices for the guest 140.

In one embodiment, the hypervisor 125 couples a backend to the guest byexposing an emulated frontend device 260 (e.g., an emulated PeripheralComponent Interconnect (PCI) device) to the guest 140. Guest access tothe frontend device 260 is trapped by the hypervisor 125 and translatedinto an access to the backend device. Incoming data and notificationsfrom the backend device is translated by the hypervisor 125 and madeappear to the guest 140 as if they were coming to the guest 140 from thefrontend device 260.

In one embodiment, a single frontend device is exposed to the guest 140and is used to couple the guest 140 to one of the multiple backenddevices, while the switching between the backend devices is transparentto the guest. In alternative embodiments, the guest 140 may be coupledto a backend device by the hypervisor 125 without the use of a frontenddevice. For example, the guest 140 can communicate to the backend devicewithout the means of a frontend device in the hypervisor 125 using oneof the following approaches: by making a hypercall which is trapped bythe hypervisor 125 and forwarded to the backend device, or by having thedevice memory mapped by the hypervisor 125 directly into the guestmemory at an address known to guest 125.

FIG. 3 illustrates a number of examples of the configuration table 240of FIG. 2. In one embodiment, devices of the different device types aretracked in different configuration tables. An example is an NICconfiguration table 310, which stores the information of two NIC devices(NIC1 and NIC2). NIC1 has high speed and does not allow change of mediumaccess control (MAC) address. NIC2 has lower speed but allows change ofMAC address. The NIC configuration table 310 indicates that that NIC1 iscurrently used by the guest 140 as the backend NIC device. The switchingcondition 330 for the guest 140 to switch from NIC1 to NIC2 includeswhen the guest requests or attempts to change its MAC address.Additional switching conditions may be based on additional features ofNIC1 and NIC2, such as: the amount of power consumption, costs, numberof concurrent users that can be supported, etc. Although two devices areshown in the configuration table 310 (as well as in configuration tables320-340 described below), it is understood that each of theconfiguration tables 310-340 may contain any number of devices of thesame device type.

Another example is a disk configuration table 320, which stores theinformation of two disks (DISK1 and DISK2). DISK1 is read-only and DISK2is both readable and writable. The guest 140 may initially read theread-only data on DISK1. When the guest 140 sends a write request towrite data, a switching condition is triggered and the guest 140 willautomatically switch to write data to DISK2. Another example is agraphics card configuration table 330, which stores the information oftwo graphics cards (GC1 and GC2). GC1 has high resolution and uses morepower, and GC2 has low resolution and uses less power. The guest 140 mayinitially use GC1 in high resolution. When the guest 140 enters a powersavings mode, a switching condition is triggered and the guest 140 isswitched to GC2 to save power. Yet another example is a sound cardconfiguration table 340, which stores the information of two sound cards(SC1 and SC2). SC1 supports surround sound, and SC2 does not supportsurround sound. The guest 140 can use SC2 when surround sound isdisabled. When surround sound is enabled, a switching condition istriggered and the guest 140 is switched to SC1.

Although not shown in FIG. 3, the device manager 128 can manage thebackend device usage of other device types. For example, the computersystem 100 may include multiple modems, and one or more of them supportsfax functionality. If the guest 140 originally uses a modem without thefax functionality and then attempts to perform a fax operation, apre-defined switching condition may be triggered to switch the guest 140to a different modem that supports fax functionality. As anotherexample, the computer system 100 may include multiple data storage(e.g., memory, disks, flash drives, etc.). The guest 140 may access onedata storage having fast speed for small files and another data storagehaving slower speed for large files. As yet another example, thecomputer system 100 may include multiple bridges of differentfunctionalities and different speeds. The guest 140 may initially uses asimple bridge that does not support packet filtering. When the guest 140attempts to configure the bridge with a packet filtering mechanism, apre-defined switching condition can be triggered to switch the guest 140to a more advanced bridge that supports packet filtering.

In one scenario, the device manager 128 may switch the device used bythe guest 140 when the feature requested by the guest 140 is notsupported by the current device used by the guest and is supported byanother device of the same device type. In another scenario, the devicemanager 128 may switch the device used by the guest 140 when the featurerequested by the guest 140 is supported by the current device used bythe guest but is better supported (e.g., with better speed, lower power,etc.) by another device of the same device type. The device manager 128may determine whether to switch for each individual device based on thepre-defined switching conditions. The decision to switch and theswitching operation are transparent to the guest 140. From the guest'spoint of view, only one single device for each device type is exposed tothe guest 140 as the backend device of that device type.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating one embodiment of a method 400 forfeature driven backend switching. The method 400 may be performed by acomputer system 500 of FIG. 5 that may comprise hardware (e.g.,circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic, microcode, etc.),software (e.g., instructions run on a processing device), or acombination thereof. In one embodiment, the method 400 is performed bythe device manager 128 of the hypervisor 125 of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2.

Referring to FIG. 4, in one embodiment, the method 400 begins when thedevice manager 128 receives an indication that the guest 140 attempts touse a feature of a backend device (block 410). The indication may beimplicit in an operation that the guest attempts to perform (e.g., theguest 140 attempts to change its MAC address). In response to theindication, the device manager 128 looks up a configuration table forthe backend device (block 420). The configuration table stores a list ofidentifiers of the devices that function as the backend device, thefeatures of the devices, and one or more switching conditions. Based onthe information in the configuration table, the device manager 128determines which device supports (or best supports) the featurerequested by the guest 140 (block 430). In one embodiment, thedetermination may be made based on the pre-defined switching conditionsin the configuration table. The device manager 128 switches the guest140 if a pre-defined switching condition is triggered (e.g., an attemptto change MAC address) (block 440). As mentioned above, thedetermination to switch and the switching operation itself are triggeredby the guest's operation, but at the same time, can be completelytransparent to the guest 140. It is not necessary to involve a systemadministrator to issue a command to switch the devices used by a guest.

FIG. 5 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine in theexemplary form of a computer system 500 within which a set ofinstructions, for causing the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein, may be executed. In alternativeembodiments, the machine may be connected (e.g., networked) to othermachines in a Local Area Network (LAN), an intranet, an extranet, or theInternet. The machine may operate in the capacity of a server or aclient machine in a client-server network environment, or as a peermachine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment. Themachine may be a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box(STB), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a webappliance, a server, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machinecapable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise)that specify actions to be taken by that machine. Further, while only asingle machine is illustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken toinclude any collection of machines (e.g., computers) that individuallyor jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to performany one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

The exemplary computer system 500 includes a processing device 502, amain memory 504 (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, dynamicrandom access memory (DRAM) such as synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) or RambusDRAM (RDRAM), etc.), a static memory 506 (e.g., flash memory, staticrandom access memory (SRAM), etc.), and a secondary memory 518 (e.g., adata storage device), which communicate with each other via a bus 530.

The processing device 502 represents one or more general-purposeprocessing devices such as a microprocessor, central processing unit, orthe like. More particularly, the processing device 502 may be a complexinstruction set computing (CISC) microprocessor, reduced instruction setcomputing (RISC) microprocessor, very long instruction word (VLIW)microprocessor, processor implementing other instruction sets, orprocessors implementing a combination of instruction sets. Theprocessing device 502 may also be one or more special-purpose processingdevices such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), afield programmable gate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP),network processor, or the like. The processing device 502 is configuredto execute device manager logic 522 for performing the operations andsteps discussed herein.

The computer system 500 may further include a network interface device508. The computer system 500 also may include a video display unit 510(e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode ray tube (CRT)), analphanumeric input device 512 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor controldevice 514 (e.g., a mouse), and a signal generation device 516 (e.g., aspeaker).

The secondary memory 518 may include a machine-readable storage medium(or more specifically a computer-readable storage medium) 531 on whichis stored one or more sets of instructions (e.g., device manager logic522) embodying any one or more of the methodologies or functionsdescribed herein (e.g., the device manager 128 of FIGS. 1 and 2). Thedevice manager logic 522 may also reside, completely or at leastpartially, within the main memory 504 and/or within the processingdevice 502 during execution thereof by the computer system 500; the mainmemory 504 and the processing device 502 also constitutingmachine-readable storage media. The device manager logic 522 may furtherbe transmitted or received over a network 520 via the network interfacedevice 508.

The machine-readable storage medium 531 may also be used to store thedevice manager logic 522 persistently. While the machine-readablestorage medium 531 is shown in an exemplary embodiment to be a singlemedium, the term “machine-readable storage medium” should be taken toinclude a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized ordistributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that storethe one or more sets of instructions. The term “machine-readable storagemedium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable ofstoring or encoding a set of instructions for execution by the machinethat causes the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesof the present invention. The term “machine-readable storage medium”shall accordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to,solid-state memories, and optical and magnetic media.

The computer system 500 may additionally include device manager modules528 for implementing the functionalities of the device manager 128 ofFIGS. 1 and 2. The module 528, components and other features describedherein (for example in relation to FIG. 1) can be implemented asdiscrete hardware components or integrated in the functionality ofhardware components such as ASICS, FPGAs, DSPs or similar devices. Inaddition, the module 528 can be implemented as firmware or functionalcircuitry within hardware devices. Further, the module 528 can beimplemented in any combination of hardware devices and softwarecomponents.

Some portions of the detailed descriptions which follow are presented interms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on databits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desiredresult. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physicalquantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take theform of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored,transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It hasproven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, torefer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters,terms, numbers, or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the followingdiscussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description,discussions utilizing terms such as “receiving”, “determining”,“switching”, “maintaining”, or the like, refer to the action andprocesses of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device,that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical(electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers andmemories into other data similarly represented as physical quantitieswithin the computer system memories or registers or other suchinformation storage, transmission or display devices.

Embodiments of the present invention also relate to an apparatus forperforming the operations herein. This apparatus may be speciallyconstructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise a generalpurpose computer system selectively programmed by a computer programstored in the computer system. Such a computer program may be stored ina computer readable storage medium, such as, but not limited to, anytype of disk including optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magnetic-opticaldisks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs,EEPROMs, magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flashmemory devices, other type of machine-accessible storage media, or anytype of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, each coupledto a computer system bus.

The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purposesystems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct a more specializedapparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structurefor a variety of these systems will appear as set forth in thedescription below. In addition, the present invention is not describedwith reference to any particular programming language. It will beappreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used toimplement the teachings of the invention as described herein.

It is to be understood that the above description is intended to beillustrative, and not restrictive. Many other embodiments will beapparent to those of skill in the art upon reading and understanding theabove description. Although the present invention has been describedwith reference to specific exemplary embodiments, it will be recognizedthat the invention is not limited to the embodiments described, but canbe practiced with modification and alteration within the spirit andscope of the appended claims. Accordingly, the specification anddrawings are to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than arestrictive sense. The scope of the invention should, therefore, bedetermined with reference to the appended claims, along with the fullscope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by a hypervisorexecuted by a processing device of a computer system, an indication froma guest to use a feature of a backend device, wherein the guest iscurrently utilizing a first device as the backend device; responsive tothe indication from the guest to use the feature of the backend device,determining, by the hypervisor, that support of the feature of thebackend device is provided by a second device that is not currentlyutilized by the guest as the backend device; and switching the guest touse the second device as the backend device.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein determining that support of the feature of the backend device isprovided by the second device comprises determining that the feature issupported by the second device and not supported by the first device. 3.The method of claim 1, wherein determining that support of the featureof the backend device is provided by the second device comprisesdetermining that the feature is better supported by the second devicethan by the first device.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:maintaining a configuration data structure for each of a plurality ofbackend devices used by the guest, each configuration data structure fora corresponding backend device containing identifiers for guest devicesthat function as the corresponding backend device, features provided bythe guest devices, and one or more switching conditions that are definedin view of support of one or more of the features by the correspondingbackend device.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein switching the guest isperformed transparently to the guest.
 6. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: opening, by a management component, both of the first deviceand second device for access by the guest prior to the switching.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the backend device comprises a softwaredevice or a hardware device.
 8. A system comprising: a memory; aprocessor coupled to the memory; and a hypervisor, executed from thememory by the processor, the hypervisor to: receive an indication from aguest to use a feature of a backend device, wherein the guest iscurrently utilizing a first device as the backend device; responsive tothe indication from the guest to use the feature of the backend device,determine that support of the feature of the backend device is providedby a second device that is not currently utilized by the guest as thebackend device; and switch the guest to use the second device as thebackend device.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the hypervisor is todetermine that support of the feature of the backend device is providedby the second device by determining that the feature is supported by thesecond device and not supported by the first device.
 10. The system ofclaim 8, wherein the hypervisor is to determine that support of thefeature of the backend device is provided by the second device bydetermining that the feature is better supported by the second devicethan by the first device.
 11. The system of claim 8, wherein the memorystores a configuration data structure that contains identifiers forguest devices that function as the backend device, features provided bythe guest devices, and one or more switching conditions that are definedin view of support of one or more of the features by the correspondingbackend device.
 12. The system of claim 8, wherein the hypervisorswitches the guest transparently to the guest.
 13. The system of claim8, further comprising: a management component to open both of the firstdevice and second device for access by the guest prior to the switching.14. The system of claim 8, wherein the backend device comprises asoftware device or a hardware device.
 15. A non-transitory computerreadable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by aprocessing device of a computer system, cause the processing device toperform operations comprising: receiving, by a hypervisor, executed bythe processing device, an indication from a guest to use a feature of abackend device, wherein the guest is currently utilizing a first deviceas the backend device; responsive to the indication from the guest touse the feature of the backend device, determining, by the hypervisor,that support of the feature of the backend device is provided by asecond device that is not currently utilized by the guest as the backenddevice; and switching the guest to use the second device as the backenddevice.
 16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, whereindetermining that support of the feature of the backend device isprovided by the second device comprises determining that the feature issupported by the second device and not supported by the first device.17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, whereindetermining that support of the feature of the backend device isprovided by the second device comprises determining that the feature isbetter supported by the second device than by the first device.
 18. Thecomputer readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising:maintaining a configuration data structure for each of a plurality ofbackend devices used by the guest, each configuration data structure fora corresponding backend device containing identifiers for guest devicesthat function as the corresponding backend device, features provided bythe guest devices, and one or more switching conditions that are definedin view of support of one or more of the features by the correspondingbackend device.
 19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15,wherein switching the guest is performed transparently to the guest. 20.The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising:opening, by a management component, both of the first device and seconddevice for access by the guest prior to the switching.